Story Highlights

Though widely criticized for his role in the various controversies that have enveloped the athletics department, Rutgers President Robert Barchi says he is unfazed by how he’s perceived by Scarlet Knights fans.

Barchi pointed to the university’s 250th anniversary in 2016 as to when he hopes to get a myriad of goals accomplished, including nearly $900 million in capital projects, and anticipates stepping down after that school year.

PISCATAWAY – Fifteen months after presiding over the worst athletics controversy in Rutgers history, Robert Barchi stood centerstage Tuesday evening at High Point Solutions Stadium in a celebration of the university’s entrance in the Big Ten Conference.

As he was introduced by Scarlet Knights Athletics Director Julie Hermann, many wondered whether the Rutgers president would be cheered or jeered. After all, in the wake of the Mike Rice men’s basketball scandal, which resulted in the ouster of several top officials, Barchi fended off criticism from fans, media and state lawmakers who said he didn’t do enough to prevent a controversy that enveloped the university.

Barchi drew applause with only a smattering of boos after receiving a Scarlet Knights football jersey as a gift from Hermann. He shed his sports coat and tried to put on the jersey, but it proved to be one size too small.

“Thanks, Julie. I guess the first thing you can do is get me a shirt that fits,” Barchi quipped.

Call it a subtle dig at the often-criticized athletics director for whom Barchi has offered unrelenting support since he made the call to hire her in mid-May 2013. It also was a rare chance for Barchi to display his personality.

“I have a speech here, but this isn’t a night for a speech — this is a night for a party,” Barchi said, drawing more applause.

A physician and neuroscientist known for his pioneering research on molecules that play a critical role in human disease, Barchi has been faulted for his seemingly lax attitude toward athletics — criticism that grew louder when he opted not to watch the infamous men’s basketball practice video in November 2012 upon learning of Rice’s coaching tactics.

In firing Rice and announcing the forced resignation of popular AD Tim Pernetti, Barchi called it “a failure of process” and apologized for not watching the tape because, he said, “I am certain this situation would have had a different outcome had I done so.”

It was the low point of his presidency, but in the 15 months since, Barchi has:

• Overseen a medical-school integration as Rutgers absorbed most of the units of the former University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey last year

• Developed a universitywide strategic plan

• Green-lighted more than $800 million in capital projects, including the first new academic facility built on the College Avenue Campus since the 1960s.

“When you’re governor and you’re about to invest $1.2 billion in very difficult budgetary times for our state colleges and universities, and a third of that in our state university at Rutgers, you have to have complete confidence in the leadership of that university,” Gov. Chris Christie said during a recent groundbreaking for a $115 million chemistry building on the Busch Campus. “I’m proud of the fact that we are doing things that are making us acknowledged in the academic community all across the country, and that would not happen without the leadership of a strong, direct and decisive president. And I appreciate Bob’s leadership.”

In a wide-ranging exclusive interview, Barchi talked about the benefits of Big Ten membership for Rutgers’ 600 student-athletes, 18,000 faculty members, 65,000 students, and 450,000 alumni. Big Ten membership came on the first anniversary of the medical-school integration, and Barchi spoke about where Rutgers now stands as a university. Two months before officially embarking on his third year in office, the 67-year-old Philadelphia native offered a timeline as to when he plans to step down as university president.

MyCentralJersey.com: Can you tell us where Rutgers University stands one year after the medical-school integration?

Barchi: “I would say what we were saying then is true now — it will probably take five years to fully assimilate the UMDNJ elements. But everything is going according to plan. The first step was to bolt the two organizations together so that the people within the organization — the students and the faculty — felt that things went seamlessly. Behind the scenes it’s taken a tremendous amount of work, and we still have two pretty disparate organizations from a point of view of information systems and data movement and all those things that have to be fixed. And that fixing process is going to take several years. We can’t take our eye off the ball. The fact of the matter is we’re probably only about halfway done with my to-do list there.”

MyCentralJersey.com: You had a stated goal of Rutgers becoming a top-25 nationally rated research institution after the merger (Rutgers tied for 69th nationally in U.S. News & World Report’s 2014 rankings). Is Rutgers closer to that goal?

Barchi: “Oh, certainly. Just by the numbers we are. The rankings for universities, the way the U.S. News & World Report does it, they’re driven by certain metrics that we know. One of them, for example, is research grant activity. And we were down in the 50-something before and UMDNJ was down in the 80s. Now, the combined Rutgers with the residual elements of UMDNJ is up around 25th. That’s a jump that’s almost impossible to make. In the normal course of business it would take almost a generation to do that. So just overnight we were able to make that kind of move. Between that and the size of our operation, we’ll definitely improve on the numbers.

“But the issue for me is — What are we really doing? Can we take what we got and develop the synergy that’s there? And that’s what we have to do to get to that top 5 or 10 percent.”

MyCentralJersey.com: Do you worry about how you’re perceived by the general Rutgers sports fan?

Barchi: “No. I didn’t take this job to win friends and influence people. I took it because I thought I could do something for the university in a finite period of time. And it needed somebody to come in, turn it around, get it to a certain level, and then move on.

“But I have to tell you that most of the people I interact with now around the campus and around the state, it’s night and day in terms of our interactions. It’s very positive, very friendly. Although there’s still some residual animosity in the athletics press, which will probably never go away, I don’t feel in the least bit put upon by the people I interact with on this campus and the people around the state now.

“It was a rough first year, but we’re past that. And part of that comes from what we’ve accomplished. We’ve done what we said we would with the integration. We’ve done the strategic plan, which was a lot of heavy lifting. And we’ve done the facilities planning. We’ve got almost $900 million worth of construction started. People can see that and say, ‘Oh, OK. I get it. I see the vision of where you’re heading. Even though I may not like your style, I like your direction. I’m on board.’ ”’

MyCentralJersey.com: Entering Year 3 of your presidency, what are going to be some of your goals?

Barchi: “I’m pointing forward to the 250th anniversary of Rutgers. And by that time I want to have all the capital projects that we have on the board done. I want to have a master plan for the years five-through-20 in hand and approved, which we will in December. I want to have the tangible results of having an honors college and some of the other investments we’ve made in academics visible. I want to look at a budget that’s balanced and is putting money back into academics every year, because we’re doing things more efficiently. And that includes completely redoing the IT structure here, reorganizing the corporate services infrastructure. I want to see the (Rutgers Biomedical Health & Sciences) on its feet and running, which I think it will be, along with access of health care systems from Newark to New Brunswick. And I want to see a team in place that is stable, high quality and make this place successful no matter who’s running it.

“And then, I’m gone.”

MyCentralJersey.com: You just named a dozen things. Do you have a timeline on getting all of that accomplished?

Barchi: “It’ll be done by 2016-17. By the 250th (anniversary) everything that I just mentioned will be done.”

MyCentralJersey.com: So do you want to see all these goals through?

Barchi: “I always told the board when I came — and I was very public about this to anybody who asked — my assessment was that this is a three-to five-year job to get it to the point where it was self-sustaining. The big jobs were done, the momentum was there, and then it was time to recruit a 15-year president. I sort of turned aside retirement to do this. So by 2016-17, I’ll be 70 and I hope I’ll have accomplished that.”